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Friday, January 02, 2015

The holiday season is over I suppose, and everyone went back to work today. But, I'm still giving out presents! Remember that I told you I would share 4 excerpts of Ashley's Dream by B.R. Kingsolver? Well, here is excerpt #2. Enjoy:)

Can a woman have both love and her dreams?

Ashley isn't looking for love. Her dream is to travel the world, and getting tied down by a man doesn't fit into her plans. Relationships always get so complicated, and men always lie. It's better just to have some fun and no one gets hurt.

After graduating university, she doesn’t get the job offer she hopes for, so it's life as usual, working as the manager of a college town bar and spending time with her friends. But life doesn’t always go the way you plan, and the next thing Ashley knows, she has two hot roommates interested in her. She likes them both, but is it love or just infatuation? She always seems to make decisions that break her heart.

When the job offer she has always wanted arrives, her heart is torn between love and following her dream.

When
Jeff came over after his softball game, I still had a lot of anger and
resentment that I hadn’t taken out on Marcie. I didn’t even know it was there
until I had another convenient target.

He
pulled me into his arms and kissed me, but I pulled away. Walking away from
him, I said, “Why didn’t you tell me you were rich? Or that your father’s
company is Owens, Hart and Collins?”

“You
never asked me. Why, is it important?”

“I
guess it isn’t if this is just a temporary fling. I just think it’s polite to
let a girl know that you’re never going to take her home to meet your parents.
It sort of puts everything in perspective so that she can decide whether or not
she’s comfortable just being a casual fuck.”

“Ashley,
what is going on? I’m not trying to hold anything back from you. We hardly know
each other.”

“Yeah.
I was asked earlier today, what your last name is and I didn’t know it. My
fault, I guess. Normally you find that sort of thing out on a first date, but I
guess we haven’t had our first date yet, have we? We just jumped into the
fucking part and left the introductions for later.”

“I’m
not the one who did the seducing,” he said. “I told you that we should wait.
You’re the one who was hot to trot, and now that’s my fault? You’re being
incredibly ungrateful. I think you’ve got issues, and I’m more than willing to
let you work them out. Good night.”

He
didn’t exactly slam the door, but he didn’t close it gently, either. I stood
staring at it with my mouth open. What the hell just happened? The last thing I
wanted to do was fight with Jeff. When he knocked on the door, my heart jumped
in my chest, and I skipped to the door to answer it. And then I opened my
mouth, and the same bitchy crap I’d laid on Marcie earlier came spilling out.

I probably should have done 2014 wrap-up things when everyone else was doing them. So, basically I should have been doing my favorite books of 2014 and my 2104 accomplishments in 2014...

I admit to my shortcomings. Once I started college, you would have thought that I dropped off the face of the planet if you look at Lis les Livres. Alas, I have not died! I just moved to a new place, had to make new friends, and took super fun classes (Sarcasm). But, I'm really happy where I am regarding the university and my life there.

On to the bookish agenda...

I did not complete my Goodreads goal of reading 51 books in 2014. However, I made it to 48 which I'll take with satisfaction. That said, I will make a list of my favorites.

So far, I've finished one book over my winter break. I have not been motivated to read because there is no book that excites me. If you have any recommendations, let me know so I can start 2015 by ceasing my reading slump.

I have to be honest, I don't know how much reading I'll do over the semester. I'm too busy parting. More like studying into the early morning and having the book/ laptop fall on your face when your body succumbs to sleep.

Don't worry though, my lovely, loyal readers. I will not abandon my blog. I worked to hard on it to let it die. I've got breaks, and I have a summer. I can do it.

Something that I want to do, and I've been saying this for awhile, is to transition to adult books. However, my shelves are full of YA or middle grade novels, many of which I haven't read. I have an attachment to them, and I feel bad for not reading a lot of them, but I want a more challenging read. I want something with more mature themes. But no more new adult.